I was asked to welcome everyone here today on behalf of the Downtown Synagogue’s Board.
I have to say that one of the things that continues to impress me about the Downtown Synagogue is that it draws people from all corners of our Jewish community. Our principal mission is to serve as a beacon for the entire Jewish community. Our high holidays are open to everyone free of charge and obligation as the late Marty Herman would say, and, generally speaking, we have an inclusive ethos.
So there are a lot of different types of people with us today that we’d like to welcome. Originally I had planned to organize my list of welcomes in alphabetical order like the Avinu Malkeinu prayers... but I ran out of time. Still, I did come up with 18 categories.
We welcome those of you living in the city and those of you coming from the suburbs.
We welcome those of you with 313 and 248 area codes and those of you with 517 and 734 area codes.
We welcome those of you who were born and raised in Detroit and those of you who recently moved here for a degree or a job.
We welcome those of you who are Shabbat Regulars and those of you who do not connect to your Judaism through prayer.
We welcome those of you who ski in the Rocky Mountains every winter and those of you who are Mountain Jews from Azerbaijan.
We welcome those of you who are working and those of you who have long-retired.
We welcome those of you who send your kids to Jewish Day Schools and those of you who send your kids to DPSCD schools.
We welcome those of you who are reading the Hebrew in the Mahzor prayer book and those of you who are reading the English transliteration.
We welcome those of you who are descendants of a long line of Rabbinic leaders, and those of you who are the first in your family to be Jewish.
We welcome those of you who are Israeli and those of you who have never even been to Israel.
We welcome those of you who get their groceries at your local grocery store and those of you who get your groceries at the food pantry.
We welcome those of you who lean politically left, and we welcome those of you who lean politically right.
We welcome those of you who are part of a nuclear family, and we welcome those of you who are part of blended families or single parent families.
We welcome those of you who took the stairs to get to the sanctuary and those of you who needed to take the elevator.
We welcome those of you who swim at the Belle Isle beach and those of you who swim at your country club.
We welcome those of you who are US citizens and those of you who dream of one day becoming citizens.
We welcome those of you who use he/him or she/her pronouns and those of you who use they/them pronouns.
We welcome those of you who are troubled committed and those of you who are untroubled committed.
So, if you fall into any of these categories or any other categories that I ran out of time to list, on behalf of the board of the Downtown Synagogue, Bruchim Habayim, Welcome, and Shana Tova v’metuka - may you have a good and sweet new year.